An assistant Scout master from Nottingham allegedly subjected an 11-year-old boy to a serious sex attack in woodland during a seaside camping trip to the West Country.

Graham Lilley is accused of carrying out other assaults on three more boys aged 11 to 15 at the same camp or at others.

Lilley, now aged 70, was an assistant leader with a Nottingham-based troop which went on summer camping trips in the 1970s.

He has denied 27 allegations against four boys dating back almost 50 years. The abuse is said to have taken place at Scout camps including one in Walesby Forest, near Ollerton, a Scout hut in Nottingham and the city’s Beechdale Baths.

David Sapiecha, prosecuting, said the four boys had remained silent about their experiences until the first one went to the police in 2013. The others were traced or came forward during the ensuing inquiry.

He said there had been a single assault against three of the boys but numerous offences against the fourth. This boy had given three interviews to the police over the space of almost two years, only disclosing the full extent of the abuse in the third.

Read More

He told police he had been abused at a Scout hut in Nottingham, on trips to the local swimming pool and on camps in Nottinghamshire and elsewhere.

The assaults continued for around three years, he said. Some were committed while the Scouts were playing hide-and-seek and the boy and Lilley hid together.

Mr Sapiecha said Lilley’s position as assistant troop leader facilitated the abuse. “This was not a young person experimenting with people their own age. If you look at the power footing, one was an assistant leader and the rest were in his care.”

Lilley denied all the allegations in a series of police interviews. The trial continues.